TECHNICAL EDUCATION

Southland Times, Issue 17784, 13 July 1916, Page 2

TECHNICAL EDUCATION

VOTE ERGED BY SOUTHLAND LEAGUE. The pressing claims for much-needed financial help for technical education and Technical School boards was brought under the notice of the Council of the Southland League at its recent meeting when several members urged that immediate action be taken to induce the Minister of Education to place a supplementary vote on the Estimates to relieve the immediate needs, and to take such steps as will reduce the disparity in the way of financial treatment between technical education and high school education. In the course of the discussion Mr J. Crosby Smitn said that any move taken to Induce the Government to place technical colleges, so far as capitation is concerned, on a similar basis to secondary high schools was on right lines. Had the Invercargill Technical College Board received as much capitation as the Invercargill High School Board they would have been nearly a £IOOO better off this year. High schools are paid on average attendance, technical colleges arc paid by the hour for each pupil in attendance, which does not work out to nearly the same advantage. There is no apparent reason why there should be any distinction dritwn between the two classes of students. They spring from the same primary schools, are of the same intelligence, belong to the same classes of the community, only one selects a truly commercial or farming training and the other probably a professional. One is as much a higher branch of education as the other. It Is not that the secondary school capitation is too high, it is the technical capitation which is too low. Mr .lohn Gilkison urged that the necessity for more liberal capitation was an urgent matter and should receive careful consideration from each member of the community so that the united opinion of voters might become strong enough to influence politicians. When the Hon. James Allen was Minister for Education. he was questioned closely by the member for Invercargill as to whether be was favourable to paying technical schools capitation equivalent to High schools, the answer being that owing to financial considerations the Minister was unable to agree to such a proposal. Seeing we were a democratie community and paid for educational facilities from the public purse, then it probable that the member for Invercargill, now that he held the portfolio of Education, would carry out the reforms he advocated when criticising his predecessor. Secondary education was open equally to rich and poor, to the artisan and tradesman as well as the lawyer and the parson. Up to the present date the technical institutions had been starved as compared with high schools. They neither received the same liberal capitation nor had they been so richly endowed. The public should ask why the Department of Education preferred to pay more liberally to those institutions which provide secondary education for the professional men of the future, as against the much lower scale given to the technical Institutions where our farmers, carpenters, plumbers, engineers and artisans received that secondary education which was equally the.lr due and was of much greater value ultimately to the community. In this town close on 600 pupils were attending the Technical School and College. The accommodation was most inadequate, third storey attics being used for classes, and the over-crowded rooms would not be passed by any factory inspector It was only right to mention that no demand for buildings was being thrust on the authorities at the present time but these facts were stated to show how this institution was catering for an increasing number of pupils in spite of existing disabilities. Clearly then the public purse should pay more equally for secondary education to all those entitled to it. The proposal was warmly suppoi ted and it was resolved to communicate the League’s request to the Hon. J. A. Hanun forthwith.